Ingrid
Houwers, better known nowadays as 'Graywolf', was born in
the Netherlands and currently lives in the beautiful County
Down, in Northern Ireland. From a young age she showed a
great passion for nature, animals and plants alike and
creating things. With anything she could get her hands on
she'd try to make something. Collecting and 'studying'
anything she could find she always had something to bring
along for show and tell and not always to the teacher's
liking.
Ingrid is a mostly self-taught artist. In high school many
of her old papers are riddled with doodles that had little
or nothing to do with the subject she was meant to be
following at that time. Drawing and painting has always been
a passion and with the encouragement of one of the art
teachers in particular, Hans Westhoff, who passed away on
the 22nd of April 2004, she decided to apply for art academy
and was taken in.
Art
academy wasn't the best of time for her, due to a accident
in her private life, creating personal issues she had no
control over. That same year, because of the personal issues
and the fact that she had more commissions outside the
academy than homework, the decision was made to stop with
art academy and venture out on her own. She did complete the
first year and got all the points needed.
Nowadays
Ingrid draws, paints, crafts and designs
countless of things for a living. She has made her hobby and
her love for creating into her job. Next to that she is a
corset maker and wearer, allowing customers to design their
own dream corset for her to make into the real thing.
She's
also a taxidermist, acknowledged by the state, and has done
many commissions for museums, schools and other teaching
facilities and people that are genuinely interested in
nature. She refuses to work on anything that has been killed
for the main purpose of having it mounted on their wall and
prefers to work on animals that have died a natural cause.
In the taxidermy field she's mostly known for the ways she's
able to put back the expression and character that belong to
a certain animal.
The
main thing she loves doing is being outside, especially in
her little "private" spot in the woods. She loves to take
long walks in the woods and she can sit there for hours.
Ingrid usually takes her sketch-book along with her in
case she sees something that she would like to draw. These
days it's not very rare if you see a fox or a roe deer
getting a drink at the lake when the evening settles in.
She
created countless traditional styled Celtic and Pictish
jewelry, t-shirts and tattoo designs, designed business
logos, has illustrated children's books, card decks, featured
in many limited edition portfolios and sold many prints,
cards and posters of her work. Her specialties are
traditional Celtic and Pictish works, but also her own
'free-style' she developed throughout her personal studies
of those arts, fantasy, anthromorphic and spiritual and
inspirational based art. One thing is for sure... she'll
keep on creating and with her creations she'll continue to
amaze and inspire those around her with her talent.

Vítor
González, Asturias, Spain –
Keltia Art Studio
Vítor
González has a Bachelor in History from Oviedo University, and is a
practicing artist of rare insight and creative ability. From his official bio:
"...Who am I? Well,
it's a hard
question to answer. My name's Vítor González, and I was born in Asturias (a
Northern Spanish region with strong Celtic roots) 34 years ago. I'm
trying to become a Celtic artist, trying to improve my skills, and
trying to be a better person each day. It isn't an easy job!
I have exhibited my
artwork in Spain and Great Britain; also, you can find my
illustrations on several books and magazines published
throughout
Spain, Great Britain, Germany and France. I think that my
stuff isn't quite bad, but I'm not too objective – I prefer to
show you my artwork and wait for your opinion about it...."
Vítor is an artist I
met on deviantArt.com, and who has become a great inspiration to me
over the past year. To the right is his
Celtic Seagulls motif, which I hope someday soon to translate
into glass (now that I've received his blessing). He manages to keep his designs
simple, yet the overall effect is distressingly
professional. Not only that, but I can't get over his
use of color. Most Celtic artists seem to either stick
with black ink, or go for the garish neon palettes of
Photoshop, but Vítor's work is always vibrant, crisp, and
intuitive.

Dagda
Studio
– Chris O'Regan, St. Albans, New Zealand
Chris O'Regan is
a Celtic metalworker and artist, based out of Christchurch, New
Zealand. A trained silversmith with a hand in everything from
jewelry work to sculpture, Chris has developed a unique approach to
copper patination that never ceases to amaze through its
unpredictable variations. Following metal-working traditions
centuries old, his resulting works are richly stippled and textured
with variegated colors — mainly greens, but also purples, browns,
and gold. The unpatinated copper is itself treated to resist
coloring with age.
Chris
uses his Irish/Scottish ancestry much in the same way I do — as a
path of artistic expression that gives meaning both to itself and to
the labors of its creator. By producing art influenced by his
family history, he can honor his ancestors and help keep the
traditions of the past alive. I
greatly look forward to collaborating with him in the (possibly
near) future, as I'd been trying for years to figure out a way to
get the effects he seems to achieve so effortlessly. The day I
know for certain that lead and copper don't react corrosively
towards each other is the day my plans get even further towards the
unmanageable. In a good way.
